Favourite author(s)

[SckizoBoy]

Book rating thread made me think about the stuff I generally read...

So, simple question: who's your favourite author(s)?

Additional question: do you enjoy pre-20th century literature much?

 

[Limecake]

So, simple question: who's your favourite author(s)?

Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell and on occasion Mr King (mostly Dark Tower)

but to be honest I'm not burried in a book every night.

Additional question: do you enjoy pre-20th century literature much?

depends I suppose, some stories just strike a chord with me. Don Quixote and Dante's Inferno were quite interesting, but I could never get into Paradise Lost.

 

[Hollyday]

My favourite author changes on an almost daily basis. At the moment I'm going to go with Margaret Atwood, since I've just reread 'The Edible Woman' and it's just as funny the second time round, and Raymond Chandler, because anyone who can write with that amount of effortless cool ("She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket") is clearly a genius.

I really love pre-20th century literature, especially 19th century sensation/gothic fiction. If you like crime novels it's an absolute must that you read something by Wilkie Collins (the father of the modern detective story, and definitely a huge influence on Conan Doyle and co.)

 

[Crenelate]

Terry Pratchett always makes me laugh. He's good when you just want to pull something off the shelf on a whim.

And Pride and Prejudice is HILARIOUS. Maybe it's a girl thing, but it was really funny.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

Raymond Chandler, because anyone who can write with that amount of effortless cool ("She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket") is clearly a genius.

I love Raymond Chandler for stuff like that. The opening to The Big Sleep is one of my favourite scenes in book ever, just from the descriptions of the outside of some guys house.

I'm fond of Douglas Adams, Hugh Laurie and David Wong for sheer out and out weirdness in their books. Surrealism is awesome.

In fact, does anyone know who else writes like Douglas Adams? Recommendations rock.

 

[Axolotl]

So, simple question: who's your favourite author(s)?

Cormac McCarthy followed by Salman Rushdie are my favorite living authors. Looking at dead ones, William S. Burroughs, GK Chesterton, Hunter S. Thompson and Jorge Luis Borges stand out.

Additional question: do you enjoy pre-20th century literature much?

Greatly, I'll happily take something Gothic or Romantic over the Modernism and Post-modernism that the 20th century gave rise to. I love Vathek, Frankenstein or anything by Byron, I also like Enlightenment stuff by Voltaire and Rousseau.

 

[applesandoranges]

edit

 

[DoPo]

So, simple question: who's your favourite author(s)?

(in no particular order) Terry Pratchett, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov, Robert Sheckley, Jim Butcher, Jerome K. Jerome. p[robably Arthur Hailey as well.

And right now I'm reading David Wong's John Dies At the End. That book kicks so much ass. And I've loved pretty much all of David Wong's articles on Cracked, so yeah, I'd add him to those authors up there.

Additional question: do you enjoy pre-20th century literature much?

Jerome K. Jerome. He's one of my idols. Seriously, I must have read Three Men on a Boat like ten times. And slightly less the collection of short stories I have at home. The book was falling apart and I just bought it again when I found it at a second hand sale, because it's that awesome.

 

[Rawne1980]

David Gemmell - I have read all his books and not one of them was bad.

Dan Abnett - Again, loved all his books so far. Just wish he'd follow up on some of his story lines and let me know what the fuck McVenner is up to now..... I need to bloody know.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Garth Nix - Read a necromancy series written by him, really liked it. Need to see if my local library has anything else by him as I had to google his name to remember it. Really liked that series though.

John Keegan - My favorite war historian. Period.

Brian Jacques - Part of my childhood and I need to find out if he has other books out besides the Redwall series.

 

[dragonswarrior]

Jim Butcher

Patrick Rothfuss

Brandon Sanderson

Robin Hobb

And to a lesser extent...

Brent Weeks, Issac Asimov, Carol Berg, Karen Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, and J.R.R Tolkien.

C'mon people, PATRICK MOTHERFUCKING ROTHFUSS. Ya know. The guy who wrote Name of the Wind? One of the most BRILLIANTLY BEAUTIFUL books ever? C'mon guys...

Forgot to mention N.K Jemison, silly me. (I hope that's how you spell her name...)

 

[saoirse13]

Favouite author = Harlan Coben. I love his style of writing and dark humour. Crime novels with sheer sarcasm and great wit through-out make me happy.

 

[DJDarque]

Brian Jacques - Part of my childhood and I need to find out if he has other books out besides the Redwall series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castaways_of_the_Flying_Dutchman

His other series. Only three books I believe, and I don't know if the series was finished before he died. I've never read it, though.

OT: Jim Butcher is hands down my favorite author. Both of his major series' are fantastic.

I do like Brian Jacques Redwall series as well.

Sadly, I'm not well versed in pre-20th century literature.

 

[bobstone]

Robert Heinlein
Larry Niven
Jerry Pournelle
Frederik Pohl
Issac Asimov

no real order of prefrence here cept Heinlein is number 1
you want sifi, these guy are the best at it imho
Heinlein while the best is also kinda odd, explorers a lot of current values and morals.

 

[DogofRaw]

Iain Banks is excellent, both with his SF and more mundane fare. I think he gets the mixture of Plot, Idea's, Characterization and plain old visceral thrills bang on.

George RR Martin, purely because of ASOIF, I have yet to read the rest of his work.

And of course Cormac McCarthy, who is a Literary God, even if he is quite insane.

As for pre-20th Century stuff, HG Wells and Jules Verne, and The Prince by Machiavelli immediately come to mind, but other than that I don't think I've read much, something I'm working to fix.

 

[bobstone]

Favouite author = Harlan Coben. I love his style of writing and dark humour. Crime novels with sheer sarcasm and great wit through-out make me happy.

ahh the crime solving sports agent and his insane rich friend. LOVE thoes books...

 

[bobstone]

O ya forgot one of the best.

R.A. Salvatore

his The Dark Elf Trilogy and The Icewind Dale Trilogy are required reading for any DND Forgotten Realms gamers.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Book rating thread made me think about the stuff I generally read...

So, simple question: who's your favourite author(s)?

Additional question: do you enjoy pre-20th century literature much?

Modern:

Lois McMaster Bujold.
Jacqueline Carey.
Jim Butcher.

Edit: I almost forgot: Soraya Saga and Tetsuya Takahashi.

Pre-20th Century:

Shakespeare.
Sherwood Anderson.
Henry James.
Elizabeth Bowen.
... although since three out of four were turn-of-the-century, some of their works spilled over into the early 1900s. But, you know, close enough.

 

[bobmus]

Scott Westerfeld takes the top spot every time.

Ben Elton is my favourite surrealist author, though I need to read more Terry Pratchett.

However, I loved a lot of Michael Coleman books as a young teenager, so him. Also Robert Muchamore, Garth Nix and Alan Gibbons.

 

[Strain42]

Bill Fitzhugh wrote my all time favorite book: Pest Control so I have to give mention to him, and of his other novels that I have actually read, I've enjoyed them, but not loved them. Pest Control is also where the Strain in Strain42 comes from

Douglas Adams, gotta give credit to him. Great books from him...and obviously where the 42 in Strain42 came from lol

Other notable authors that I love are G.A. McKevett for the Savannah Reid novels, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Tim Dorsey, and Jim Butcher

Not a novel writer, but I want to mention John Layman for his writing on the comic series Chew. Other cartoonist writers I'd like to mention are Bill Watterson, Peter David, Dave Kellett, Scott Kurtz and Tony Colley.

Manga writers I wanna mention Yozaburo Kanari and Seimaru Amagi for the Kindaichi Case Files, the best mystery manga I've ever read.

Oh and also John Swartzwelder, the prolific writer of 59 episodes of The Simpsons, but also wrote some hilarious novels such as The Time Machine Did It, How I Conquered Your Planet, and The Exploding Detective.

And um...I could probably just keep going on and on, but those are some of my favorites. I would say if I had to pick my top 3 it's

1. G.A. McKevett
2. Jim Butcher
3. John Swartzwelder